Zachary Gordin in concert celebrating Reynaldo Hahn (and his new CD)

Zachary Gordin

Barihunk Zachary Gordin and accompanist Bryan Nies will perform a recital in celebration of the release of their CD “Amour sans ailes” on the MSR Classics label. The concert is at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in California on Saturday, August 25th at 7:30pm.
 
The concert is presented by Michael Morgan, Music Director of the Oakland Symphony and features a program of music by Hahn, Massenet, Fauré and Duparc.

The concert tells the story of the relatively unknown composer Reynaldo Hahn through his music, teachers, and musical contemporaries. The recital follows his path from a child prodigy and star of La Belle Époque, his return to a changed France post-WWI, and his struggles to find a new musical identity. 

Tickets are available online.  

Zachary Gordin releasing CD of Reynaldo Hahn

Zachary Gordin

Barihunk Zachary Gordin is releasing a CD of music by composer Reynaldo Hahn accompanied by his frequent collaborator Bryan Nies on the piano. The CD will be released on October 1st and is available for pre-order.

Gordin and Nies began their collaboration with a less than perfect production of Puccini’s Tosca, but recovered to join forces for numerous concerts, opera productions and recitals.
This disc marks the culmination of that artistic partnership, spanning more than ten years and many veins of repertoire.

This selection of mélodies, with a few exceptions (for musical flow and programming), is arranged chronologically and provides a window into Hahn’s development as a composer. The cycle Chansons Grises, written when he was only 12-15 years old, shows his prodigious talents and the influence of his teachers Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and Massenet from the Paris Conservatory, where Hahn was the rare exception as a particularly young student admitted into the esteemed school.

Barihunk Zachary Gordin in Festival Opera double-bill

Zachary Gordin sporting his Barihunk tee shirt at the gym

Barihunk calendar model Zachary Gordin is replacing fellow barihunk Hadleigh Adams in the Festival Opera's double-bill on Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins.

Gordin will sing Nedda's lover Silvio, whose affair with Canio's wife leads to the play-within-a-play's tragic turn. He'll be joined by Hope Briggs as Nedda, Alex Boyer as the jealous husband Canio and Laura Bohn as Anna, who will be led by Michael Morgan in the pit.

The Seven Deadly Sins is a satirical ballet chanté in seven scenes. Setting out on a journey across America to aid her poverty-stricken family, Anna I - manifested as two facets of one personality, one who sings and one who dances - finds herself on a seven-year, seven-city quest where she ultimately encounters each of the seven deadly sins. Anna I will be sung by Laura Bohn, who will be joined by Gordin, Kirk Eichelberger, Jonathan Smucker and Robert Norman, with Bryan Nies conducting.

With a libretto by Bertold Brecht, The Seven Deadly Sins was an artistic triumph at its premiere in Paris, but was not performed in the United States until twenty-five years later in 1958, with Lotte Lenye singing the role of Anna I.

There will be two performances of the double-bill on Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25 at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, just a short train ride from both San Francisco and Oakland. Tickets are available online.

Zachary Gordin back in San Francisco for song recital

Fresh from his return appearance at the Olympic Music Festival, the ever popular Zachary Gordin returns to San Francisco for a song recital with accompanist Bryan Nies. The two will perform as part of the Old First Concerts series in the City by the Bay on Friday, August 15th.

The duo will perform songs of Reynaldo Hahn’s Chansons Grises, as well as his À Chloris, Dans la nuit, Trois jours de vendage, Néère, and more.  They will then switch to British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’ song cycle The House of Life.

Tickets are available online.

Zachary Gordin in "Opera in the Park"

Zachary Gordin

"Opera in the Park" is coming to the San Francisco/Oakland suburbs with barihunk Zachary Gordin, soprano Kristin Clayton and conductor Bryan Nies. On Sunday, June 24th, the singers will perform with Festival Opera at the Civic Park in Walnut Creek at 5 PM.
   
Zachary Gordin was most recently featured as a soloist in Oakland East Bay Symphony's Carmina Burana. He's been a regular on our site and was also featured in our charity calendar. On June 1st, at Sacramento's Pride celebration, he premiered composer Clint Borzoni's "A Nation Announcing Itself" taken from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

The "Opera in the Park" program will include music from Verdi's "Il Trovatore," Bizet's "Carmen," Bernstein's "West Side Story," Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," Puccini's "La boheme" and Bernstein's "Candide."

Attendees are encouraged to bring a picnic or buy pizza at the park. No alcoholic beverages are allowed, but you can get drunk on the music.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com